Thursday

Jun 27, 2019 at 3:01 AMJun 27, 2019 at 6:27 AM

Music hasn’t made Chuck Demers and Marie Anne Rocheleau-Demers rich, but it's certainly made them happy. And the couple's lively performances and infectious music have also brought smiles and goodwill to many in Central Mass. and beyond.

Chuck & Mud (Demers and Rocheleau-Demers, respectively) have been making beautiful music and memories for four decades together and, 6:30 p.m. June 27 at Elm Park, they will be celebrating their 40th anniversary as Worcester’s beloved “country-folk and all that jazz” duo.

And, when you thought you can’t get more Worcester than Chuck & Mud opening the Elm Park summer concert series, there will be an after-party (to 11:30 p.m.) at George’s Coney Island, 158 Southbridge St.

When they are not performing live, the two work in education — Chuck as a teacher at the Worcester Family Partnership and Mud as an early childhood instructor at Worcester Technical High School. The couple also ran the Chestnut Nursery School and Kindergarten in the United Congregational Church, 6 Institute Road, for many years.

Originally from Gardner, Chuck served in the Army for three years during the Vietnam War era. He was drafted after losing his deferment to go to Northeastern College in Boston.

“If you signed up, they would give you training and you wouldn’t go into the infantry,” Demers said. “I was in the States for a year and then they sent me to Korea in a time when 87 percent of all the Army guys were going to Nam.”

When he got out of the military, Demers moved to Miami, where he played in the jazz-pop trio West Trade. Demers credits Zonkaraz cofounder and keyboardist Paul Vuona for inspiring him to move back to the Worcester area, where he squeezed every penny he could out of his G.I. bill and attended 45 months at Worcester State College before leaving with a couple of graduate degrees (in English and early childhood), he said.

Originally from Worcester, Rocheleau-Demers says she got inspiration from her mother, classical pianist Anne A. Rocheleau, who, as a young woman performed regularly on radio station WTAG, in Mechanics Hall and what is now Boch Center — Wang Theatre in Boston.

“I was certainly influenced by my mother,” Rocheleau-Demers said. “I loved the piano and I took classical piano lessons when I was young, quite young. But I always wanted to sing. So classical piano didn’t cut it. So I got a guitar and one of my brothers taught me how to play.”

The first album Demers bought was “The Circle Game” by Tom Rush (whom Chuck & Mud eventually opened for at Mechanics Hall) and Mud’s first album purchase was Leonard Cohen’s “Songs of Leonard Cohen” (which she played “a million and one times”).

Rocheleau-Demers said one of the reasons that she fell in love with Chuck was his vast knowledge of old standards, which weren't familiar to her.

In the '70s, Rocheleau-Demers was a huge Zonkaraz fan and she would catch them every chance she got. Demers regularly played during Zonkaraz’ sets and caught her eye. Soon after, the two ended up at the same Christmas party, in which Demers brought his guitar.

“I was playing a lot of piano at that time but I wanted to pick up my guitar again and I hadn’t for several months,” Rocheleau-Demers said. “So I went home and got my guitar and played with Chuck at the party.”

The two hit it off and “Chuck” invited “Mud” to come down and join him at a gig he had at the old Paddock Lounge on Portland Street.

“I was really excited about it,” Rocheleau-Demers recalled. “I bought a new dress.”

As legend goes, the guy who booked Demers at the Paddock Lounge said to him at the end of the night, ‘Why don’t you come back next week and bring her with you.’ And, with that invitation, a partnership deal between Chuck & Mud was struck.

“As hard as it was to get gigs, it got a lot easier when Mud started coming singing with me,” Demers said.

Although both agree that it was love at first sight, it took the two roughly seven years after playing their first gig together, on July 5, 1986 (a day which both fondly refer to as “non-Independence Day”), to tie the knot.

“It was a good coronation. I love Mud’s voice and she could always harmonize and I love to harmonize,” Demers said. “It was just a beautiful combination of physical love and musical love and mental love, all wrapped up in one.”

“It’s pretty cool,” Rocheleau-Demers interjected.

In the last 40 years, Chuck & Mud have been winning over audiences of all ages by performing at their share of coffeehouses, church basements, kid’s fairs, community fundraisers, First Night Worcester events and concerts in the park all over Central Mass.

Onstage, the two always seem like they are having a good time, and that carries over to the audience. Demers said that is the key to their longevity as a musical act.

“It’s kind of a blessing that we’re not dependent on music for a living, to pay the mortgage or the bills,” Demers said. “We work other jobs so we can afford this nasty habit of being folk singers. But that frees us up at the same time. We don’t have to work as hard as other people do. And it makes it more fun.”

Chuck & Mud has recorded one studio album for adults, “It’s About Time,” and another one for children, “Would You Like to Be a Banana?!.” They have also recorded a live album (and live DVD) of their 25th anniversary concert at Mechanics Hall, in which they not only played in front of a near sellout of 900-plus people, and describe as their favorite gig of all time.

“Everybody got a 100 bucks for playing and we had like 25 musicians,” Demers said.

“It was awesome,” Rocheleau-Demers added, “It was a total thrill and a half.”

Other personal favorite gigs for Chuck & Mud over the years were the duo’s 30th Anniversary gig at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts and opening for Zonkaraz (there’s that band again) at The Hanover and at Indian Ranch in Webster.

Thursday’s performance will feature Chuck & Mud playing with the MudChuckkers (guitarist Walter Crockett of Zonkaraz and Walter and Valerie Crockett fame; and mandolin player Dan Nowlan and upright bassist Ken Taylor, both from the Blackstone Valley Bluegrass Band), followed by a set with Chuck & Mud and the Hole in the Dam Band (featuring Crockett, keyboardist Sten Gustavson, bassist Peter Allard and drummer Matthew Cassell).

“We would never be as well-known as we are if it wasn’t for The Hole in the Dam Band,” Rocheleau-Demers said. “We wouldn’t have played half the gigs that we played. Everyone has brought us up to a different level. We’ve had many interesting experiences. We’ve been very lucky and part of that luck is the band, I’ll tell ya.”

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